It’s a well-known fact that Perth is an isolated city. It is situated on the West Australian coastline, 2,104 km from its nearest metropolis, Adelaide, and closer to Southeast Asian cities like Jakarta than to Eastern counterparts Sydney and Melbourne.
But isolation gives one a lot of time to think, and in turn, a lot of time to turn thoughts into art. From a distance, Perth seems muted, but the closer you get, the more you truly hear it for what it is: the hub of Australia’s greatest artistic exports. All you have to do is tune in.
The Music has been clued in to the magic of Perth Festival for some time now, but this time around, we didn’t just take word for it, seeing for ourselves what’s been on offer at 2026’s edition: a taster of what’s to come for the jam-packed month of creativity.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Anna Reece, Perth Festival 2026 runs from 6 February to 1 March, featuring 117 events across 23 days. A third of these events are free, making the festival accessible to all.
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With 13 Perth Festival commissions, 28 world premieres, and seven Australian premieres, this year's program brings together 413 Western Australian artists and 144 international artists in a celebration of creativity that takes over the entire city.
The festival's philosophy, simply put, as seen on one of its many golden-yellow-coloured posters around the city: Go in curious; Come out moved. For the average Perth punter, everyday spaces are recontextualised, while for those stopping in for a holiday, you get an activity for every occasion—including free things to make your travel budget go just that bit further.
Office towers host operas, cathedrals become concert halls, and the once-derelict East Perth Power Station pulses with new life as a music venue and outdoor gallery. This Lotterywest community experience won Best Cultural, Arts or Music Event for WA at the 2025 Australian Event Awards.
As Reece puts it in a recent interview with The Music: “We have art in all different kinds of places and spaces, you know? And we have some really, really special, brand new West Australian work that's premiering in the festival,”
Day 1
Ballet at the Quarry
Who needs to travel to the US for a Red Rocks Amphitheatre experience, when Perth has its own wall-to-wall limestone venue? The Quarry Amphitheatre is a serene little nook tucked quietly behind national parklands, and it boasts an exquisite view of the city for the price of a good car park (hint: get in early, folks).
But the bedazzled skyline was hardly the drawcard in comparison to Perth Festival’s Ballet at the Quarry series. Playing from 6th to 28th February, Ballet at the Quarry presents the world premiere of Incandescence - a new addition to British choreographer Ihsan Rustem’s body of work.
With four completely different acts, there was a kaleidoscopic range of themes, costumes, and styles of dance. One moment, we’re watching a girl in a red dress and her threadbare peers perform contemporary melodrama, and in the next, there’s the traditional pointe bourées and pliés of sparkling ballerinas. Each scene combines ballet and contemporary styles, giving and taking to fit the space. While it’s a slow burn, Incandescence utilised props for a beautiful supporting interpretation of the dancer’s characters, from white sheets and white lines, to mesh unitards and paper-lantern tutus. Be prepared to have your heartstrings tugged.
Day 2
POV
And the heartstrings will continue to warble with theatrical show POV, taking the lens - both physically and spiritually - of an 11-year-old girl named Bub, as she navigates her own life through her documentary-making endeavours.
On the Friday night show, young actress Sydney-raised Yuna Ahn reprised the role of Bub, leading local actors Haydon Wilson and Chris Isaacs through their roles as her parents - one that neither of the two gentleman were given any preparation or context for, apart from needing to know ‘how to do a great … impression’ and ‘how to explain mental health to children’.
On this night, Hayden played Michael, and Chris played Penny. Hayden brought Michael to life with complete commitment, capturing the particular defensiveness of a man watching his marriage implode. Chris embodied Penny's terse precision beautifully - until the Zoom scenes. When the actors had to hold up household objects as props, Chris broke character to chase laughs, plunging fingers into a Vegemite jar in a way that felt nothing like the guarded woman Penny was meant to be.
A tough but essential watch, we see Bub attempting to use theatre to understand the un-understandable. We watch a twelve-year-old sitting on train tracks to 'think', and witness arguments between parents that mask deeper fears.
Rebel Rebel
If POV demanded emotional labour, Rebel Rebel at East Perth Power Station offered euphoric release via a boogie. Ten years after David Bowie's passing, the Perth Symphony Orchestra joined forces with powerhouse guest vocalists to reimagine his greatest songs in a spectacular celebration.
The East Perth Power Station is a marvel of a venue - a previously derelict industrial building transformed into a venue where corrugated iron walls become projection screens and concrete bones pulse with technicolour light. Orchestra conductor Jessica Gethin led the Perth Symphony Orchestra through eighteen Bowie tracks, and the MC managed to slip in a Bowie fact or two between every few songs, which he described as doing his bit to educate us in between the entertainment.
A personal highlight was Justin Burford’s rendition of Golden Years, complete with glittery projections of Bowie-like figures dancing across the iron walls. Abbe May delivered a breathy, husky Ashes to Ashes, her voice riding the orchestra like air over water. She mentioned growing up in Perth's music scene with Rachael Dease, and you could hear that particular Western Australian understanding that it takes a village to raise a musician.
Mid-performance, a beach ball designed to look like the moon sailed from the stage into the crowd. “Feel free to play with your balls,” Justin quipped, before another ball - this one designed as the sun - followed. The show had abandoned gravitas in favour of pure joy.
International cabaret sensation Meow Meow brought theatrical intensity to Rock 'n' Roll Suicide and Five Years. Commissioned by Bowie himself for a New York High Line festival, she had the kind of stage presence that kept you between fits of laughter and gaping awe. Katy Steele appeared in head-to-toe chrome for Starman, explaining how Hunky Dory shaped her at seventeen when she was still figuring out who she might become.
Noah Dillon closed the evening with a medley of Rebel Rebel and The Jean Genie, dedicating the performance to his uncle Paul, who worked at Perth Festival until his passing last year. Dancers in punky black and tartan joined him on stage, and the entire Power Station shook with sound.
The encore brought Modern Love with saxophonist Mark Turner returning to mass applause, then Let's Dance as the credits song, thanking every musician and singer. Walking out into the February night, someone mentioned the AI-generated projections.
It's the question everyone's wrestling with - but in the reasoning of Perth Festival’s production crew, Bowie was a modern man, always incorporating the latest technology and constantly chameleonising into the newest look or era. The team believed Bowie would have given AI a shot as an expansion of creative experimentism, somehow. Probably three albums ahead of wherever we are now.
Day 3
Ali Bodycoat & The Embassy Big Band
Perth Town Hall transformed into The Embassy for four nights of big band romance. It was a full temporal shift to the golden age of jazz, and the audience immediately got the memo. The Embassy Big Band started with a roar, and before the first song reached the bridge, couples were up dancing, doo-wooing in harmony.
Ali Bodycoat emerged with hair slicked smartly and a décolleté adorned with glistening crystals. “Are we not blessed and delicious at this time of year, and aren't we happy we're alive?” she asked the crowd. It was more of a manifestation than a question. The band maintained perfect dynamics - tight and together, like a pot about to boil over, the lid rattling but holding.
They covered an '80s hit about bad habits, and couples of all ages filled the dance floor, slow dancing on Valentine's Day with the kind of glamour Perth, or any city for that matter, rarely gets to experience anymore. The Embassy residency was exactly what Perth Festival should be: a vessel for unrestrained joy.
Songs of the BulBul
At His Majesty's Theatre, award-winning UK choreographer and dancer Aakash Odedra delivered a sixty-minute masterclass in physical storytelling. Songs of the Bulbul, winner of the Best Show Award at Edinburgh International Festival, brings together Kathak dance and Sufi storytelling in an exploration of an ancient myth about a nightingale held in captivity.
The lighting and smoke created a liminal space, separating the art from the outside world while remaining firmly grounded in reality. Odedra glided across the stage with the agility of a man who will never have arthritis, his body moving according to different physical laws than the rest of us.
It would be strongly advised to avoid this show if you have epilepsy, as there was more than one intense strobe light situation, where light flashed, and we caught only glimpses of Odedra frozen mid-pose in anatomically impossible positions. But the highlight was the mesh cloth representing the dancer's soul - billowing, wrapping, becoming second skin, then prison, then wings.
Rose petals fell at precisely the right moments. Sticks hit the stage with dramatic thuds. The backstage team deserves their own standing ovation for making the performance as immersive as it was. When it ended, the audience sat in silence before erupting in ravenous applause. Not one, not two, but three standing ovations were had.
Casa Musica
Between performances, Casa Musica kept the festival energy alive. This free, family-friendly riverside stage at East Perth Power Station runs Thursday to Sunday throughout the festival, inspired by the vibrant piazzas and parks of southern Europe.
It's an open-air freebie for those looking to get out and about before the end of summer without breaking the bank, featuring world-class musicians performing everything from First Nations-led rock to future-soul, Irish folk to Indonesian and Indian sounds.
The lineup includes ARIA-nominated Ngaiire, trailblazing band Selve, Irish legends Beoga, and special nights from RTRFM celebrating Lunar New Year. Families gather on the riverbank with picnics, kids dance freely, and the walls of East Perth Power Station light up with projections from Bibbulmun Noongar/Budimia Yamatji artist Lance Chadd Tjyllyungoo, transforming the colonial building into a canvas for First Nations storytelling.
Morcheeba
Back at East Perth Power Station, Morcheeba brought thirty years of genre-defying music to close out Valentine's Day. The UK trip-hop legends - fronted by Skye Edwards' velvet vocals and featuring their eleventh studio album released in 2025 - have sold over 10 million records and shaped the sound of chilled groove for nearly three decades.
Edwards twisted mid-lyric, her frilly multicoloured dress following the movement as projections streamed coloured smoke across the iron wall. The lights didn't just illuminate - they coloured the stubborn roof beams, breathing technicolour life into the building's skeleton.
They played their new track Call for Love from May 2025, then a fan favourite that brought out phone cameras. The crowd sang the 'by the sea' part without prompting. Blue waves washed across the walls, turning concrete into liquid.
“You guys are so quiet, it's Saturday night for fuck's sake,” the guitarist complained. “Drink some tequila.” The crowd loosened. Morcheeba launched into a new song about mortality with a blistering guitar solo complimented by horizontal bars of red light. Another solo bordered on acid rock, the guitarist's wow-wow pedal working overtime while the rhythm section locked into reggae.
The band revealed they grew up on blues and country before taking on a cover with a stanky slide guitar. Edwards' vocals came in coarse and breathy, like dust from the American West. Edwards has a distinctive style in which syllables string together and sentences slur. If you're not a die-hard fan, it shows pretty quickly which lyrics you've been singing wrong.
The next number leaned full reggae, Aurora borealis lights washing both walls in red and green stripes. The smoke machine rose high, probably mixing with a bit of joint smoke from the crowd. Couples who'd digested their Valentine's dinners started slow dancing. The air got thick with pheromones and possibility.
“53! I'm gonna be 54 this year,” Edwards announced, reminiscing on Morcheeba’s origins. The crowd knew the next line before she sang it. Another guitar solo painted the building neon blue. The band joked about peaking too early, panting from the exertion.
The encore arrived, gentle and solemn. The corrugated iron behind the stage went rust-red. Then she got her flowers from the crowd with ravenous applause. The final song featured geometric beams of every colour painting the back wall while trippy patterns grooved across the iron. Everyone's hands swayed together one last time.
Before they left, the key player - quiet all night - finally got his moment. If there were a roof on this place, it would have been blown off. 'We love you guys. Thanks so much,' the guitarist said. And the masses flowed out into the Perth night.
Perth Festival takes place this year from February 6th to March 1st, with a sporadic lineup across the city. The lineup features both free and ticketed events, and more information on the Perth Festival program can be found via the event website.
